The Western States Open always attracts a good cross section
of western players, and a few others from around the country, to Reno in the
fall. The 28th Annual, held at the Sands Regency October 21-23, was
no exception, with 214 participants, including three GMs and six IMs. A total
of $23,353 in prize money was paid out. Organizer Jerry Weikel hopes that the
economic downturn will end one of the these years, restoring the turnout to
that of better years (as recently as 2009, it was 257).

One feature of the last two years that was absent was a
10-minute playoff for first place (see stories from 2009and 2010).
The top seed, GM Sergey Kudrin, became the undisputed champion with a 5-1 score
in the 39-player Open section. A 4-0 start, including wins over FM Robby
Adamson (a reversal of last year's game, featured in our article at that time)
and IM David Pruess, enable Sergey to coast in with quick draws against FM Alex
Kretchetov and Konstantin Kavutskiy and earn a $3,000 prize check. In the
Pruess game, Black gave up his queen early for material compensation, but
Kudrin built up an attack and deftly transposed to a won pawn ending.

A frequent visitor to the Western States and
the companion Far West in the spring, Sergey says it's his favorite tournament.
"Fran and Jerry Weikel are great organizers." He was clear first in the Western
States in 2006 and 2008, and tied in 1991, 1999, 2003, and 2007. A 52-year-old
from Stamford, Connecticut, Kudrin bemoans the difficulties faced by
professional players in the U.S.

Here
he offered a draw. I think the position is about equal. 20...Rhc8
21.f3 Nd5 22.Rhe1 N7f6 23.c4
he
played this thinking my knight could not go to b4 because of 25.Nd6. but since
the knight can go to b4, his king is now mortally exposed. Correct was
g4 defending the h5 pawn, and the game is balanced. 23...Nb4
24.Ne4 Qe5 25.Nb3
25.Nd6
Nd3+25...Nxe4
26.Rxe4
26.Qxa7+
Qc7 27.Qxc7+ Rxc7 28.Rxe4 Nxa2+ 29.Kc2 Rcb7 30.Re3 Nb4+ 31.Kc3 Nd5+ 32.cxd5
Rxb3+ 33.Kd2 Rxb2+ 34.Ke1 Rxg2 26...Qg5+!

With
the idea of going to h5 next move. I also considered some other ideas that are
not as convincing. 27.Rd2
Qxh5
Black
threatens Qh1+ Rd1 Qxg2 and there is no defense 28.Qxa7+
Kf8 29.Kb1 29.a3 Qh1+ 30.Rd1 Nd3+ 31.Kc2 Qxg2+ 32.Rd2 (
32.Kxd3 Rxb3# ) 32...Qxf3 and the rook on e4 is attacked so black wins. 29...Qh1+
30.Nc1 Nxa2
! a
neat finishing blow 31.Qxa2
31.Kxa2
Ra8; 31.Rf4 Qxc1+ 32.Kxa2 f531...Ra8
32.b3

and White resigned. 0-1

Facing
Kretchetov (who had a chance to tie for first) in the final round, David
uncorked a rare line in the King's Gambit Declined - but failed to surprise
Alex, who had seen a game of his and had analyzed it with the new popular
engine, Houdini. Alex was in excellent shape until he got the unfortunate
inspiration of sacrificing a rook. White's queen was out of play for a long
time, he had no organic weaknesses and Black was unable to exploit the lady's
absence.

Also in the second place tie was 17-year-old
Howard Chen of Washington State. He drew IM Vladimir Mezentsev in the second
round, drew Khachiyan in the fourth (as he did in the Pacific Coast Open last
summer; see my earlier article;
Melik had beaten him in the Los Angeles two weeks ago), and upset the off-form
second seed, GM Alexander Ivanov, in the finale.

Untitled
Konstantin (Kostya) Kavutskiy was also in the tie. The precocious 18-year-old
recent college graduate is now focusing on chess as a player, coach, budding
journalist (he writes articles for CLO on the U.S. Chess League and will be covering the North American Open for CLO in December), and
manager/player for the LA Vibe in the USCL. He pulled stunning
upsets of IM Enrico Sevillano and Ivanov before the last round draw. White has
done well in the line selected by Ivanov against the French, but 9.b4 may be a
better choice. Kavutskiy fully held his own, and on move 29 prepared to switch
to the kingside with a winning attack (the immediate 30...Qf8 also appears
winning).

The last player in the second place tie (the
Under 2400 prize money was pooled with the place prizes, as all but Pruess met
that criterion) was another young master, Michael Pearson of the Bay Area. His
last three rounds featured a draw with Khachiyan and wins over IM Raymond
Kaufman and FM Adamson.
Two
Under 2400 players with 4 points split those honors. Idaho's Luke
Harmon-Vellotti, our top 12-year-old, downed FM John Bryant and drew Pruess and
IM Mackenzie Molner, and Sarah Chiang of Texas, at 14 the top U.S. girl under
16, beat FM Nick Raptis and Bryant the final day. Sarah's brother Jonathan (top
U.S. 11-year-old), beat Canadian FM Dale Haessel in the last round to reach 3½.
I was happy to see Jonathan (despite his Texas provenance) sporting a UC
Berkeley hoodie; his parents are alums.Go Bears!

The
remaining four-pointers, Khachiyan, Molner, and Kretchetov, took place prizes,
and Adamson's 3½ earned him a bit.

Paul
Romero of Klamath Falls, Oregon, topped the Expert section at 5-1. Last year's
winner, Fred Kleist ofWashington, tied
for second with Udit Iyengar, Colin Chow and Danny Goodman of Northern California.In Class A, Northern Californians Leonard
Hill, Jamshid Alamehzadeh, and Virgil Vigil were joined in a first place tie at
4½by Drayton Harrison of Seattle and
Michael Reed of Tucson's always-powerful Catalina Foothills High.

Five
points earned B honors for Timothy Brennan of Colorado, Chris Jenson of Utah,
and Gabriel Bick of California.In Under 1600, Matthew Rudd scored 5½, but was ineligible for prize money. The
money winners at 4 ½ were Mathias Grabiak and Ivan Troufanov of Northern
California, Kerry Van Veen of Washington, and Francisco Baltier of Arizona.
Finally, Matthew Reed topped the Under 1400 section with 5½. The "two Matthews"
are both from the Redding Chess Club in far Northern California. It is not yet
a USCF affiliate and has only ten members, but five of them showed up in Reno!

The
Western States, in addition to displaying 12 demo boards, name plates for all
Open players, and state flags for the top three boards in the other sections,
always offers a variety of extras. Kudrin gave a clock simul, giving up just
one draw to Tony Chinnici (as he did previously!). GM Lubosh Kavalek won all
his simul games and offered a reminiscence of Reno's GM Larry Evans, who died
shortly after last year's tournament: "I had the privilege to play next to him at the 1976 Olympiad in Haifa, when
the U.S. team won the gold medal. He was an excellent positional player, a
tough-minded counterpunching defender who didn't mind grabbing pawns and taking
risks. He was hard to beat." Lubosh also pointed to Larry's extensive
journalism and major contribution to Bobby Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games.
Beginnimng in 2012,the Far West
tournament will be renamed the Larry Evans Memorial.Lubosh and IM John Donaldson also provided
a popular clinic to review players' games. And another IM, Cyrus Lakdawala
(whose copus of opening books is growing rapidly) played in and duly won the
Quick tournament. Special prizes in the main tournament went to top-scoring
seniors Leonard Hill and Kharrazi, and to the best-scoring club, Seattle, in a
close finish over Capital City (Sacramento).Tournaments sometimes feature someone
playing in the main and side event at the same time, generally allowed by
organizers.The one player who made
that choice on this occasion was, shall we say, not the most mobile, and had to
rush some distance back and forth. His opponent in the Open had not been
notified of this circumstance because of miscommunication among the TD staff,
and he and his parents were understandably perturbed. Hurt feelings were
eventfually assuaged.Jerry Weikel and his staff continue to
uphold a great tradition, and everyone should make the trip to Reno once -
you'll want to come back!
For USCF rated results, see the MSA report.